The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."

Sunday, June 12, 2005

A note to our readers

Hey you lazy smart butts, where the heck did you go? Did you forget your note to the readers?

No. But we didn't have a great deal of organization this week. We had an idea but decided to hold it for next week (a theme). Ava and C.I. were going to do their TV review as other people (we can't say more without giving away the theme) and when we dropped the idea, they were stuck having to review a show they hated (CSI Miami) without the joke behind it.

We also had a great deal to talk about. Betty's son got hurt this week. Rebecca had the centrist bothering her. C.I. had the e-mail coming in first to The Common Ills. Then there was the Times reporter, the first to want to be quoted, being quoted. And the uproar that ensued. Midweek, Dona's aunt had surgery and Dona, Ava, Jim, Jess and Ty were all present at the hospital. Add in the week post-Watergate which left the press with no glory days to recount and just fluff to dispense and you know we talked about that!

After we completed our first article ("Dear Third Estate Sunday Review"), Ava and C.I. went off to watch CSI Miami and we were going to do our Blog Spotlight. We ended up debating which of Rebecca's two entries to spotlight. When Ava and C.I. rejoined us an hour later, we were still debating. Which led to Ava and C.I. having some choice words, some very strong choice words.We went both and we also presented Common Ills community member Miguel's summary of last week's news, via Democracy Now!, in Spanish and in English. Democracy Now! is doing their headlines in Spanish and in English and we wanted to be sure to note that. "Five Books, Five Minutes" repeatedly turned into personal conversations. We left one part in, at C.I., Rebecca and Ava's insistence. They thought it summed up the process this week.

That 'process' also led to our mini-interview with Rebecca, so we won't knock it. Read Rebecca's feelings on getting out the message, we think she's on the money.

Via BuzzFlash we found the focus for the editorial. Ava and C.I. had already gone to BuzzFlash before they went off to do their TV review. While they did the review, we went ahead and published what we had completed, read The Sunday Times of London article and, honestly, took a nap.

Which didn't please Ava who'd been slaving with C.I. over a review of a show they hated and only agreed to watch to execute the theme that we decided to drop at the last minute. (Like C.I., Ava really doesn't watch TV. When the theme was nixed, there were no shows that they had already watched in the past week that they could substitute for the focus of the review.)

So we said when the editorial was completed and posted, we'd treat Ava to breakfast. (C.I. wasn't with us physically or we would have treated C.I. as well.) As we now all prepare to crash, we got back online to do our thank yous.

As always we thank our readers. Hopefully you'll find something in this edition that makes you laugh or enrages you. We don't try to be detached here.

We thank Folding Star, Rebecca and Betty for their assistance and help. Folding Star participated in the "Five Books, Five Minutes" article as did Betty and Rebecca. Betty and Rebecca also participated in "Dear Third Estate Sunday Review," the blog spotlights, the mini-interview with Rebecca. Betty took her leave after that (we don't blame her). Rebecca stayed on to add her input to the editorial.

C.I., as usual, participated in everything here except this. And of course the TV reviews are done by Ava and C.I. We've claimed C.I., even used the term "honorary member." We asked Ava what she thought would be a better title. She groaned and said, "Type faster, Jim, I'm about to fall out right now!" Then when she realized we were all waiting for an answer, she shrugged and said "special guest star." What?

"You know," she explained, "like on Melrose Place. Heather Locklear was always billed as 'special guest star.' Episode after episode. At least I think she was. I'm tired. I just want to go to sleep."

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About Me

Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).